Does anyone actually still use XFree86 after the license split and fork? I thought that pretty much everyone (except NetBSD for hardware compatibility reasons) used Xorg now?
And if you still use it, what incentive do you have to use it/keep using it?

I am still using Suse Linux 7.3 on my NForce2 chipset together with XFree86. The 4.6.0 release works well. Although the updating of Suse 7.3 is sometimes very time-consuming, it is worth it, because it is as fast as lightning on my Athlon XP 2500+.

Xfree was the basis of xorg, so it's not like it was all bad. It is unfortunate that they decided to go with the license change that seemed to be the nail in the coffin, but there is something to be said for the project staying away from large changes. You might not be using it on your desktop machine, but for server environments where a rock solid stable X11 implementation is needed, Xfree might be a better option. Also, I'm not positive about this, but aren't there quite a few older unices that still haven't switched over to xorg (ie. AIX, HP-UX, etc)?

How many people have big mission critical servers running X? Is it possible, yes, does it exist, yes. But not so many servers run as remote unix gui sessions. Yeah I'd agree that for such environments the new xorg stuff is still a little too bleeding edge, but it'll calm down soon enough now that the xorg 7 reorg is mostly done.

Plus, if you actually want to have hardware compatibility then you really have to use xorg. New hardware support in Xfree is added slower then a glaciar on pluto.

Actually the license change was a great thing for the X system. It got people to fork it and create an amazing new branch rather quickly. If only they had done that years ago when Xfree86 stopped doing real work.

Xfree86 basically decided they wanted to remain a pure unix environment in the traditional sense and not add too many new features. Now look at Xorg, it is keeping the old concepts in there but also adding tons of new shit that is pretty exciting.

I am glad they changed the license, if only they would have done that 5-10 years ago instead.

But the graveyards are full with people who thought they couldn't be replaced.
David Dawes (and the reset of the remaining XFree team) made every possible mistake in the book. XFree earned its rightful place in the software graveyard up-above.

Which bsd or linux distros are using XFree86, OpenBSD was using XFree86 a while back. Now that X11R7 supports 3D acceleration why would any dsitro opt for XFree86, not flamming just asking out of curiosity. Thanks.

As far as I am aware, Debian use Xfree in the last official release.
However, that is not the point. There is people here either trolling or making jokes about graveyards etc,
It is indeed a funny joke, however, there is a point that you all seem to miss.

Open source software, does not die, it does not fade away, it does not dwindle, it does not disappear..... The code is there for anyone to take and start to re-develop. Try that with proprietary stuff.

Only for "statble", As soon as you switch to "testing", your Xfree is replaced by an Xorg. Since they plan to release Etch as "stable" by the end of the year (if I remember well) Xfree is not going to be used a lot anymore. May be, as one said, by AIX HP-UX (though HP has now been selling lot's of Redhat on its servers... Redhat uses Xorg)

Xfree made it possible, but everythings comes to an end one day.
Le roi est mort. Vive le roi.

Debian sarge uses a pre-fork version of Xfree (before they changed the license). Most of the former Xfree developers now work on Xorg. Debian unstable has switched to Xorg last July, and future Debian releases will use Xorg.

Xfree86 work is only of interest to very conservative maintainers of legacy systems.

I can't say I'm really interesting in XFree86, but this is the first news in ages that I've read about it. I guess there really isn't much going on or atleast no one ever bothers to write about it. I've been using Linux for quite a good while and I vaguely remember quite a few mentions about future plans for XFree86, some of which included license changes, and then there came the split to X.org and XFree86..X.org seemed very promising, looking at all the plans people had for it, and I frankly was quite eager to get to try it and it's new stuff sometime. Well, I finally did when Gentoo made the switch to it. It's been a pleasant journey and X.org is strolling forward at an impressive speed. Personal favorites are the EXA, XComposite extension and the move from monolithic to modular structure. It really helps keeping the system up-to-date and I no longer have to compile the whole thing at once.

Xfree86 development is pretty much going on as usual, even before the fork. They release a little less than once per year and every new release contains some driver enhancements, some bugfixes, a few minor new features and an updated xterm. Nothing interesting really.

One must remember, however, that the licencing issue was the last straw that broke the camels back - there were alot more issues surrounding XFree86. For example, the 'exclusive' way in which the project was managed, the lack of transparency in regards to how the project bought in contributions.

In the end, with the move to Xorg, it provide a much needed boot up the ass, and has encouraged people to contribute to the project rather than with XFree86 with the same small core of developers.